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The Allisons.

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Saturday at the Auction.

There are a couple of principles that Chuck and I live by. Fastfood and Nordstrom come right to mind, not sure if those are principles, but they are definitely in my world. And you are in my world now, sweetheart. You chose to visit.

Principles, principles, where was I before I snapped? Ah yes. Our Saturday. We lived by two of our favorite principles on Saturday "Thou Shalt Live Cheaply" and "Thou Shalt People Watch". So, for no reason other than it was free and it was awesome, we went to an estate auction.

Uh huh. Estate auction. I can give you no back story as to why. We needed some culturing and this seemed right up our alley. I'm not sure about your upbringing, but I had no previous estate auction experience -- not really Fe and PK's crowd. Chuck's childhood, however, was littered with these kinds of cultural experiences. His parents raised him to appreciate the art of People Watching and educated him on the best places to do this.

My expectations for Saturday ran wild. I expected awesome people, paddles with numbers, and avoiding any sudden hand movements that could be construed as bidding. I was prepared to be a statue.

It was nothing like I expected.

No paddles. No standing still-as-Edward (oh I went there). And the people were pretty normal. Sigh. Plus, it's at the actual house where these people live, which is sad and morbid because they've recently died. And it's their "stuff". A lifetime of treasures out on display. You're sorting and bidding on their life. It was weird, at first.

But before I knew it, I was in-love with auctions.IN LOVE.

This house was incredible. Imagine if someone on Hoarders was a collector. And if that person enjoyed square dancing, sewing, fur, fine china, ivory, wood working and everything in-between. That's what this house was. Even the most seasoned auction-attendees were shocked by the sheer amount of it all. It took the auction house 10 days to set up and most the items went to their main facility for a future antique sale. It was overwhelming.

The event (it was an event) began at 9:00.We were there at 9:15.There were 1300 lots (a lot is one or more items).I was swept off my feet by 10:30.We stayed 7 hours.We bought nothing. NOTHING.

I covertly took pics on the point and shoot. I wanted to remember every last inch. I'm not sure why people yard sale when this is around. This was fantastic.

At first, the amount bothered me. The whole "their life" thing was tough to swallow. But Chuck put it best. "Bravo". Bravo on your collection. I got out from under my rain cloud and chose to spend Saturday celebrating these people. They worked hard and it was amazing. Tip of the cap. Remember what I said about lots? An auction item might be one thing or a stack dishes, box of trinkets, or 200 frames bundled together. 1300 lots. THIRTEEN HUNDRED. See, one part that we never could grasp was the appeal of one item over another or its value. There was no guessing. You couldn't figure out what the crowd would go for. For example, the hedge trimmer paired with the chainsaw? $2.50. The pile of wood in the above picture? $25.We stayed out of obsession and curiosity. We loved the live auction. The numbers, the competition between bidders. It was just good entertainment. Of course, Chuck and I loved starting the bids. We were amazing at throwing out the $5 bid for a 10pc set of China. We were the go-to-opening bids. I could really tell the crowd appreciated our help in getting the ball rolling.

Oops. You know what? I realized I lied early. We did buy something. I'm just choosing not to count it and trying to forget the pain. See, while I was engrossed in watching a bidding war over a ceramic frog sleeping in a walnut shell (truth), Chuck snuck away unsupervised to one of the 7 silent auctions. Sigh. I should really bring a leash for that guy.

Chuck wanted a Prospector. A little miner doll ecstatic over his gold.The need for this is so apparent.Chuck decided to bid only after realizing it came with 3 companion dolls -- he plans to gift them to Shelley (act surprised, angel). Oh it gets better. The "Lot of Dolls" that Chuck bought was EVERYTHING UNDER THE TABLE. So, for $7.50 we are the proud owners of all this.I've circled our winnings for you to covet more closely. Beautiful antiques everywhere and this is what we get. We are so cheap. And easily entertained.

And that was our Saturday.It was amazing.It was pretty typical.And it was entirely on par with how we live. Ridic.

LOL! No seriously, I would be laughing out loud if I weren't risking waking Stephen and both the dogs. That's awesome. So many nice and beautiful things...and you end up with the prospector and a ton of stuffed animals and dolls (literally - a ton)! Awesome.

How did you even find out about this place? and 7 hours? Oh boy, next time you guys want some good free entertainment I'll let you babysit:)And if you want I can send you home with a box of stuffed animals too!

I'm Susie. He's Chuck. Our IVF miracle is Sam and our medical miracle (& surprise!) is Baby Kate. We're The Allisons. The About Us section will give you more information. More than you could ever want.